Gods and Demigods Read the Books
by Tom Marvolo Riddle 2
Summary: DISCONTINUED- ADOPTED BY: The1andOnlyWiseGirl
1. Introductions

Zeus sat proud and tall in his throne. His wife Hera, sat tall and regal in hers. They watched as there family walked in and took their own thrones. Males sat on the east side of the throne room, females (and Dionysus) on the west.

They entered so that the thrones closes to the door were last to be filled. Poseidon entered first, followed by Demeter. Ares entered with an excited grunt, he was followed by a grey eye roll on Athena. Apollo and Artemis entered both with bows and quivers on their shoulders. Hephaestus entered with Aphrodite's arm linked through his. Ares got a murderous look in his eyes. Hermes glided in wearing his winged sandals. Dionysus walked in and looked rather odd.

"Bacchus," Zeus said, "I know you prefer the Roman's but this is a Greek meeting. Would you please change your form?"

Bacchus sighed and flickered, he became Dionysus once again.

Hestia walked in and set out a folding chair next to Hermes' throne. She took a seat by the fireplace and stroked it.

Hades walked in as glum as ever and took the seat Hestia had set up for him. "Thank you, Hestia." The god said.

Hestia looked shocked. The god of the Underworld never thanked anyone for anything.

Hades saw her confused expression. "I'm trying something new." He said, "Can't I be nice once in a while?"

Hestia shrugged and returned to her fire.

"It's good to see everyone again," Hera began, "I'd like to please ask that no fights brake out this meeting."

Everyone mumbled in agreement, but everyone knew that wouldn't happen.

"Okay," Zeus began, "first order of business is-"

Zeus was cut off by a flash of light where about a dozen of people stood. They all looked lost and confused, until they saw the gods.

A young dark haired, green eyed boy stepped forward. "Lords, you summoned us?"

The gods all shook their heads. This group truly did come out of nowhere, though some gods recognized a select few.

_Annabeth. _Athena thought when she saw her blonde grey-eyed daughter. Hermes grinned when he saw his two sons, Connor and Travis, planning a prank together. Pride flashed across Ares face when he saw his daughter, Clarisse among the crowd. Demeter smiled when she saw Katie smiling shyly at her. Apollo studied a frizzy red haired girl with caution and curiosity. Aphrodite grinned like crazy as she tried to decipher relationships within the crowd. She sighed when she found only two. Artemis watched a spiky black haired girl who wore a familiar outfit. The other gods didn't notice it, but Zeus and Poseidon both had panicked looks among their faces as they saw their kids within the crowd.

"And who are you?" Artemis asked.

"You don't know us?" The dark haired boy asked.

"Not all of you." Hermes replied.

"What year is it?"

"2004."

"That explains it. We're from 2010."

Artemis looked annoyed that her question had been dismissed.

"Who are you?" she asked again, more sternly this time.

The dark haired boy stepped forward to introduce himself when Annabeth pulled him back and whispered in his ear. He nodded and stepped back passing the message to the spiky black haired girl and a dark haired boy in an aviator's jacket.

Annabeth stepped forward. "I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena; head of my cabin; official architect for Olympus."

"We don't need an architect." Ares said.

"They're from the future." Athena retaliated. "Perhaps something happened and we ordered her to repair it."

Two boys stepped forward, that looked so similar, that they could've been twins. "This is Travis Stoll," said one boy. "And this is Connor Stoll," said Travis. "We're sons of Hermes and co-counselors of our cabin." They said this at the like they'd rehearsed it.

Katie stepped forward shyly. "I'm Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter, counselor of my cabin." She stepped back.

A buff girl stepped forward and Ares cheered. "Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares; head counselor of my cabin."

Together, the green eyed boy, the spiky haired girl, and the boy in the aviator's jacket all stepped forward together.

"I'm Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus; lieutenant of Artemis."

"I already have a lieutenant." Artemis said. "Zoë Nightshade."

Thalia looked down at her toes. "She died… protecting you."

Artemis sat back in her seat looking really glum, and an argument broke out.

"You broke the oath!" Poseidon and Hades yelled at their brother.

Hera looked unhappy with her husband but she stopped the fighting anyway. _I'll yell at him tonight. _She thought. "Next please." She said in a forceful voice.

The green eyed boy stepped forward. "My name is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon; head counselor of my cabin; Saviour of Olympus; Praetor of the Twelfth Legion."

All the gods looked stunned, except Hera, who tried to wipe a smile from her face, and Dionysus, who momentarily flickered into his preferred form.

Annabeth walked up and asked Percy what that meant. The truth? Percy had no idea why he said that, or what it meant, it just came out. He touched the underside of his arm, the same spot where he would later receive a tattoo, like it was bothering him.

Zeus was the first to break the silence.

"You broke the oath?" he yelled at Poseidon.

"As did you!" Poseidon retaliated.

"Boys!" Hera yelled shutting them up. "We have more introductions to come. Please," she said, "continue."

The other boy stepped forward.

"I am Nico Di Angelo," he said, "son of Hades; counselor of _my _cabin; ambassador of Pluto;" There were confused looks all around the demigods, but unlike Percy's slip of the tongue, Nico knew exactly what he was talking about. All the gods momentarily flickered with Dionysus into their Roman forms.

Nico turned towards his father, "and proud son of the only god not to break the oath."

Hades smiled at his son when he said that, but the grin only lasted a moment.

"Hades broke the oath! You're proof!" Poseidon yelled.

Nico tried to break in with the explanation, but the god started yelling at Hades, and his brother joined him.

Hades didn't yell back this time. He truly was trying to be good. He simply sat there like a teenager being scowled at by his parents. Not paying attention, and thinking about everything else.

_My son has his own cabin at camp. _He thought. _They've finally accepted my children for who they are._ He smiled at the thought.

"What are you grinning at?" Zeus asked still yelling.

"Please, brothers." Hades said quietly. "Please stop scolding me, for breaking oath that I didn't break, and an oath you did." That shut Zeus and Poseidon up.

"Shall I, or would you like to?" Hades asked Nico.

"You may."

Hades turned to his brothers.

"Nico and his sister were born long before the pact, before World War Two. When you brother," Hades pointed a finger accusingly at Zeus, and Zeus shrunk in his throne with guilt.

"Struck down the hotel in an attempt to kill my children, you only managed to kill their mother. I had a Kindly One dip them in Lethe and take them to the Lotus Hotel and Casino." Nico, Percy, Annabeth, and a satyr all shuddered at the mention of that place.

"Is something wrong children?" Athena asked.

"It's nothing, just unpleasant memories." Annabeth said. "Please Lord Hades, continue."

"There's nothing left to say. Apparently in the future they escape or are released. Another introduction please?" Hades asked, and a satyr stepped forward.

"Grover Underwood, Chosen One of Pan; Lord of the Wild; Vice Leader of the Council of Cloven Elders; Protector."

"Some protector you are!" Zeus yelled. "You couldn't even get Thalia safely to Half Blood Hill!"

"Father," Thalia cut in, "that wasn't his fault. It was my choice to let my friends get to safety."

A woman with brown hair stepped forward and Poseidon silently gasped.

"Sally Jackson," she said, "Percy's mortal parent."

Finally, the girl with frizzy red hair stepped forward.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," she said, "Oracle of Delphi."

Apollo nodded, Hades began grinning again. _My children, finally accepted as people. _Hades thought again.

"Now that the introductions are over," Athena began, "why are you all here?"

In response, a book appeared in Athena's lap. "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" she read aloud. "The Lightning Thief."

She opened the book to find a letter in the cover as if the author had signed it. "Dearest Olympians," she read aloud. "We have brought you together with these mortals from the future to read a series of books. These books tell the future. You cannot change it, and don't judge these half-bloods too harshly. Please enjoy part one of five. Signed, The Fates."

By the fireplace, Hestia snapped her fingers. All the visitors were in couches. The other Olympians looked at her.

"What?" she asked defensively, "You can't seriously expect them to stand there well you read a full five books can you?" Some Olympians shrugged in agreement, others didn't really care. The demigods seemed happy with the arrangement.

Connor and Travis sat in over-sized beanbag chairs. Thalia was in a mound of furs looking perfectly at home. Grover, Rachel and Katie all ended up on chair shaped rocks. Annabeth and Sally were both in comfortable desk chairs. Percy was in a fisherman's chair much like his father's throne. Clarisse and Nico both ended up in recliners.

Aphrodite sighed in frustration. "Seriously Hestia, if you're going to do it, at least do it right." Aphrodite snapped her fingers and Percy and Annabeth were in a blue love seat, along with Travis and Katie who were in a green one.

Hermes and Demeter smiled at the sight of their kids. Athena and Poseidon frowned. Their kids couldn't seriously be dating, could they?

Athena sighed and turned to the next page and began reading.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about the weird spacing. I'll try to fix it next chapter.**


	2. Lightning Thief ch 1

**I accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Oooo!" Connor got excited. "First person point of view! Who's it going to be?"

"Ten bucks says it's Percy!" Travis yelled across the room.

"You're on!"

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

**Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

The demigods thought of their friends. Zoё Nightshade, Silena, Becondorf, Luke.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Oh gods, this is in my point of view." Percy complained. "Connor, you owe Travis ten bucks."

Connor groaned, got up from his chair pulling out a ten dollar bill and handed it to Travis, who quickly pocketed the money.

"Travis!" Percy yelled sounding excited. "Now you can pay me the ten dollars you owe me. Remember, the ten dollars I won when I beat you in capture the flag? The ten dollars you swore on Styx you'd give me once you had the money? The money you owed me a year ago? Remember?" Percy continued to be annoying like this until Travis finally got up and gave him the money.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Of course." Annabeth said leaning against his shoulder.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,**

"Your life isn't miserable." Sally said.

"At the time it was." Percy said. " I was a dyslexic, ADHD, kid who got kicked out of every school he went to and had Gabe Ugliano as a step-dad."

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Now that sounds like torture." Apollo said.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"No respect!" Athena huffed interrupting her own reading.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner,**

"Isn't that what you called Chiron your first day at camp?" Annabeth asked. Percy nodded and laid his head on hers.

**Our Latin teacher was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons,** **so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Out of curiosity," Percy began, "why did he use Roman stuff instead of Greek?"

Nobody seemed to hear him.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"What were you aiming for?" Hermes asked.

Percy shrugged. "I don't even remember. Tour group maybe."

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl,**

"Is she your kid Hermes?" Apollo asked.

"Impossible." Hermes said. "I haven't been involved with a red head since long before World War One."

"Maybe you haven't." Dionysus said, "but has Mercury?"

"Who?" asked a demigod.

"Nobody." Hera quickly said and gestured for Athena to continue.

**hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Oh, yeah. Thanks a lot Percy." Grover said sarcastically.

"No problem." Percy responded with a sarcastic smile.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Seriously Grover?" Thalia asked. "You always give yourself up over food."

The demigods Grover had found began naming what it was that nearly gave him away.

"Pie." Annabeth said and Thalia nodded remembering the day he found them in a bakery.

"Tacos." Katie said.

"Donuts," Travis said. "And Pancakes." Connor finished.

"The entire snack bar." Nico said. Everyone laughed. Grover turned pink from embarrassment.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension. If anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer than that Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, steel, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

"Since when do teachers ride Harleys?" Ares asked. "Harleys are my ride."

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"I think it was caused by her." Percy said. Annabeth smiled and leaned so Percy could put his arms around her.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"So she's a monster?" Zeus asked. Percy nodded.

"One of the worst for most demigods, but she was one of the easiest I've ever fought. The first time anyway."

"You fought her more than once?"

"Percy has rotten luck." Annabeth explained.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the steel,** **and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"God?" Zeus asked offended.

"Honey," Hera said trying to calm him down, "Chiron will correct him. I'm sure of it."

**And—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

Some of the elder gods shuddered as they remembered the experience.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

Cheers all around from the gods.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted." Apollo said.

"Shut up." Artemis said, gesturing for Athena to continue.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. **

"Chiron really shouldn't have brought that up." Athena said interrupting her own reading.

**"Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Longer than that boy." Poseidon said.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"He's also prone to hyperbole." Annabeth said.

The gods laughed, Percy pouted a little.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"I'll admit," Annabeth began, "I wouldn't be able to do that either."

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the steel, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was." Zeus said.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

"Or the Olympians are fighting." Hades said.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Or just Zeus and Poseidon are fighting." Hera said.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchable crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,**

"Are you sure she isn't yours or Mercury's?" Apollo asked Hermes.

"Positive.' Hermes said with a glare.

**and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Laughter all around and Grover's blush deepened.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. **

Some girls let out an "aw."

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

More "aw"s sounded.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

People laughed at the image in their heads.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Aphrodite shuddered. "I obviously didn't bless her."

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"And you didn't think he was my son?" Poseidon asked Grover.

"Well, I still couldn't be completely sure. But I had my suspicions." Grover said.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishment." Hermes said looking disappointed.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Well Grover's a protector and Mrs. Dodds is a monster." Annabeth reasoned.

"I know that now." Percy said kissing her head.

Athena noticed this and looked unhappy.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"It's not the stare that is scary," Thalia began.

"It's when he pulls out Riptide and attacks you." Rachel finished glaring at Percy a little.

"You attacked Rachel?" Sally asked mildly concerned.

"In my defense," Percy said trying not to laugh, "I had a dam problem."

Thalia and Grover started busting up laughing at the joke. Percy joined in and there were confused looks all around.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I don't think that's his ADHD. After all, we know she's a monster." Athena said.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on,** **but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"What was he reading?" Annabeth asked.

"How should I know?" Grover asked in response. Annabeth shrugged.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

Ares chuckled evilly. "No witnesses. Perfect."

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize me...**

"I think she still does." Percy said.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"WRONG!" Grover said.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

The Stolls gave Percy two thumbs up. Hermes laughed. "Are you positive you're not my son?"

"I'm pretty sure." Percy said.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Percy, Percy, Percy." Annabeth chided, "you should have read the book."

"Old English and Dyslexia? No way!" Percy said.

"You will read it."

"Do I have to?" he complained.

"Yes."

"Do you have it Greek?" she nodded. "Fine I'll read it."

"Good boy." She turned her head and kissed him on the cheek.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER HIM?" Poseidon yelled at his brother.

"I haven't sent one after him yet. I didn't know who he was until today." Hades responded surprisingly calm.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"I don't see how they could." Katie said.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Forget what I said."

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

"You beat her with one swing?" Ares asked. Percy nodded.

"**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms?" Hera asked. Percy shrugged.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

"I love the Mist!" Apollo said.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Only Chiron would ever do that." Thalia said.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"End of chapter!" Athena announced. "Who'd like to read next?"

Hades raised his hand. "If you don't mind, I'd like to." Athena shrugged and tossed him the book.

**Three Old Ladies Kit the Socks of Death**

* * *

**A/N: i wanna know. Does anybody want me to bring in Heroes of Olympus characters any time during the Percy Jackson reading? I'm considering it, but I want your opinions.**


	3. Lightning Thief ch 2

**Three Old Ladies Knit Socks of death**

"Who died?" Poseidon asked.

"I did." Percy said with extreme sarcasm. The gods didn't pick it up.

The gods started yelling questions. "How did you come back?" "How are you alive then?" "What was it like?" And many more questions.

"I was being sarcastic." Percy said. The gods nodded and sat back in their thrones.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Ten bucks says it's Grover!" Travis says challenging the group.

"You're on!" Connor yelled.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

Connor got up, angrily and passed another ten to his brother. Travis snickered as he pocketed the money.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No duh." Thalia said sarcastically.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means drunk." Annabeth said to him.

"I know." Percy said slightly defensively.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

A collective sigh let out from the girls.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

The girls released another.

"Paul's not bad." Annabeth said. Poseidon narrowed his eyes. Sally was with someone else?

"This was the first one." Percy said trying to shake off bad memories. Annabeth noticed and kissed him on the cheek in an attempt to make him feel better. It worked.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

The girls released another sigh... Again.

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good." Annabeth said. "You're going to need to believe him." Percy nodded and whispered something in her ear. She smiled and he kissed the top of her head.

Poesidon smiled and Athena scowled.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

**Words had started swimming off the page, ****circling my** **head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"Well I hope you do now." Annabeth said. Percy nodded and kissed her again. Athena's scowl deepened.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I'll admit," Annabeth said, "I'd probably have trouble too."

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes.**

"Older." Athena said deepening her scowl even more. It was bad enough her daughter was dating sea spawn, but marlin were smarter than this boy.

**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Aw." some of the girls cooed.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

"Cue eavesdropping Percy." Grover said and people laughed.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, ****but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"… alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her… ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia stood and put a comforting hand on Grover's shoulder. "I made that desision. It wan't your fault."

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"No!" Hermes yelled.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Rule number ten." Travis began.

"Never give away your position." Connor finished. Percy just stared.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Rule number 15," Conner said, "get away APS... PSAA... SPAA.." COnnor huffed in anger as his dyslexia fought him.

"A-S-A-P." Travis said slowly.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"He's in centaur form." Grover said to the confused looks. Why they were confused, he had no idea.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

"Rule number 16," Travis said, "Hide if you might be caught."

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

"Rule number 17," Hermes said, "Wait until the coast is clear."

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

"I could still read them." Grover said.

"I know." Percy said. "I figured it out when you explained the emotion thing."

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Thought?" Annabeth asked. "What are you talking about? You always are." Percy hugged her tighter and kissed her on the cheek. If it were possible, Athena's scowl would've deepened even further.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three hours?" Apollo asked terrified. "They make you stay there for three hours?"

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

Suddenly, Athena felt a little sympathy for Percy, but she didn't show it and it didn't outweigh her hatred for him dating her daughter.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"You dare call us nobodies?" Zeus asked offended.

Percy put his hands of defensively. "I didn't know." Zeus sat back in his throne, and Percy put his arms around Annabeth again.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

"They seem nice." Annabeth said.

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Never mind."

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Yes Percy." Thalia said. "That's how you start a conversation with your best friend who's on edge." Percy shrugged.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Rule number 30," Hermes said glaring slightly at Percy, "never confess."

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

The sighs sounded again.

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

** After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Poseidon mouthed to Percy,_ "The Fates?"_ Percy nodded and Poseidon paled. The quick back and forth didn't go unnoticed by Annabeth.

She escaped her boyfriend's grip and turned to him. "You saw The Fates and never told me?" She asked loudly as she smacked him upside the head.

"I didn't think it was important." Percy weakly defended himself. She glared at him. Percy sat up and hugged her.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." he whispered in his ear. Annabeth tried to stay mad but she couldn't. She hugged him back and accepted his apology. She kissed him much to the excrement of Aphrodite, the happiness of Sally and Poseidon, the anger of Athena, and the disgust of Nico and Thalia.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Everyone paled slightly, but nobody dared interrupted. Annabeth gripped Percy's hand really tight. Percy hugged her tighter to let her know he was still there.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny,** **Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

If it were possible, everyone got paler and Annabeth's grip got tighter.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

_No. No. No. _Poseidon thought.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His** **expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"Quit blaming yourself." Thalia said. She pulled Grover into a hug and Artemis scowled. She couldn't tell if this was a friendship, or love. She hated consulting Aphrodite, but she needed to be sure. She mouthed to the love goddess. _"Love?"_ Aphrodite shook her head and Artemis sat back in relief.

"**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"Did he do it?" Thalia asked. She was back in her mound of furs. Grover shook his head.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Out of curiosity," Nico said, "what kind would you like?" Annabeth sent daggers at him.

"That's not funny." she said. She was still scared out of her wits that Percy was so close to death. Nico sat back as if trying to disappear into his recliner.

"Who's next?" Hades asked. Poseidon raise his hand, and Hades tossed it to him. Poseidon was about to read, but he was interrupted by a flash of light.


	4. Newcomers

When the light died, there stood a middle aged man and a handful of teenagers.

The man had salt and pepper hair and light skin. He was wearing a pair of black slacks and a white button up shirt with a blue tie. He appeared not to be acquainted with the teenagers on his right.

There were five of them, three boys and two girls. One boy had a was wearing a purple shirt and jeans. He had a blonde military hair cut and sky blue eyes. A little scar was on his lip. He was holding one of the girls in a comforting matter. Thalia was eyeing him carefully.

The way she composed her look stated that she didn't like to be noticed. It didn't work. She had choppy brown hair with little strands braided. She wore a pair of jeans and an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt under a black snowboarding jacket. She had dark skin that appeared to be a Native American shade. Her eyes, which clearly marked her as a daughter of Aphrodite, were a kaleidoscope of brown, blue, and green.

The other obvious couple were sitting on the ground to their right. The boy looked kind of like a Chinese sumo wrestler, except for his babyish face. He wore a purple shirt and dark jeans. He had a dark military hair cut like the blonde. On his arm, a tattoo was just barely visible. Two crossed spears, but the rest was hidden by the girl he was hugging in his lap.

She had coffee colored skin and curly dark hair. Her brown eyes were rimmed with tears. She was wearing a purple shirt and jeans as well. On her arm the bottom of a tattoo was just visible. A single line. Off to their right was the last boy.

He looked like a Latino Elf. He had curly dark hair, pointy ears, and long nimble fingers. He had a look on his face like he felt guilty but others had tried to convince him otherwise, and now he was trying to convince himself as well. He was leaning against a wall, mindlessly playing with spare parts. Overall, he looked beat down, like a kid after a sugar high. He was wearing an orange Camp Half Blood shirt and jeans. A tool belt was around his waste.

The man was first to recover his wits. He didn't start anything like Percy had. Instead, he ran forward towards Sally and they embraced one another in a hug.

Percy smiled to see his mom and step-dad together. Poseidon felt a little jealous and uncomfortable. Aphrodite smiled at the site as well, but she could tell that Poseidon still had feelings for Sally. She felt a little bad.

Percy choked on his saliva and broke out in a coughing fit. Paul turned to the sound and smiled ear to ear when he saw his stepson. "Percy!" Paul exclaimed happily. Immediately all of the kids snapped there heads up. They caught sight of Poseidon's son and broke out in smiles. Percy felt confused by the behavior of the newcomers.

The curly haired girl got there first. She enveloped Percy in a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. The girl blushed a little. It was a sisterly kiss, everyone could see it, save for Annabeth, who quickly filled with jealousy.

"Percy," Annabeth said through gritted teeth, "who is this?" She said "this" like she couldn't decide on a cussword strong enough.

"I have no idea." Percy managed through the strangled hug. Annabeth tried to hit the girl, but she was blocked by Nico.

"Don't you dare hit Hazel." He said in a defensive tone.

"Do you know this girl di Angelo?" Annabeth asked in a pissed tone. Nico didn't answer. He was too busy prying the girl from Percy. When he managed to do so, the new boys ran in for hugs, well the other girl stood back and studied them.

The back and fourths went by quick. They went a little something like this:

"Oh my gods! You guys are all right!"  
"Ah... who are you?"

The boys stepped back in confusion. "Do you have amnesia again?" The sumo boy asked concerned

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. "No. We don't have amnesia... Who are you?"

"Lay of them guys. They're not even from our time period." The girl decided.

"What are you talking about Pipes?" The blonde asked.

"It's obvious. Don't you see it?" Pipes said. The boys and the girl, who was now trying to escape Nico's grasp, looked up for an explanation.

"Exhibit A: They still have their streaks." She said gesturing to their heads. "Annabeth had her streak when we met, but it faded months before we left for California. Percy didn't even have his when any of us met him."

Annabeth began fingering her streak. She didn't want to loose it. It was like a special connection to her boyfriend.

"Another thing," Pipes continued, "look at Percy's arm." The Latino elf picked up Percy's arm and studied it.

"It's blanks!" The elf exclaimed in genuine shock. Percy pulled his arm away.

"Thank you Mr. Spock, for that amazing analysis." Pipes said sarcastically.

"I told you," the elf said through gritted teeth, "don't call me Mr. Spock. I hate Star Trek!"

"Fine. Repair Boy."

"Fine. Beauty Queen." he mimicked her.

"VALDEZ!" Pipes yelled warning him he crossed the line.

"Thank you Piper." The elf said. "Valdez is much better, though I still prefer Supreme Commander of the Argo II or Leo."

Piper glared at him. Leo plastered a devious smile to his face. "You were saying Pipes." The blonde said gesturing for her to continue before she could rip off Leo's head.

"Thank you Jason. Exhibit B:" Piper said dramatically, like she was a lawyer, "Percy doesn't have his tattoo yet." Sally stood up.

"Tattoo?" She asked concerned. The sumo boy walked over and showed Sally his tattoo.

"The only difference is," he said, "Percy has a trident instead of spears." Sally just nodded and sat down.

Piper took out her dagger and tried to stab Percy in the stomach. "Exhibit C: Percy stil has his Achilles heal."

Rachel doubled over and Apollo rushed over to help her. The other gods seem to fit the pieces together.

"The seven are here. "Rachel said.

"What?" Katie asked.

"Seven Half-Bloods shall answer the call." Rachel said. "The seven are here."

"Who are they?" Annabeth asked, though she figured who five of them were.

"I- I don't know." Rachel said. "But I can sense it. All seven of the second Great Prophecy are here." Hera tried to stifle a smile.

"Any hunches? 'Cause I have a few of my own." Annabeth said.

Rachel studied the demigods in the room. "These five," she said gesturing to the new kids, "and youandPercy." She mumbled the last words so nobody really caught what she said.

"What?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth and Percy." Rachel said louder and clearer. That caused mass panick among the mortals, save for the newcomers.

Sally started freaking out. "B-but he already saved the world! He's suppose to have a happy ending!" she began crying and Paul comforted her.

The Stolls and Clarrise started mumbling. They didn't think it was fair that Percy got both the prophecies.

"I also have a hunch that Nico has a strong part in this too." Rachel announced.

Nico silently asked the dark skinned girl about this. She nodded grimly.

Annabeth and Percy just looked at each other. Neither of them wanted to be a child of prophecy the first time. And now they were both children of the new one? It wasn't fair. They saved the world already, and now they have to do it again?

Percy held Annabeth tighter and she let herself sink into him. Bad thoughts crossed there minds until Zeus silenced the commotion.

"New mortals, introduce yourselves. Full titles, No exceptions."

The blonde stepped forward. "Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, praetor of the Twelfh Legion..." Percy and Annabeth snapped there heads up.

"What did you say?" Annabeth asked.

"Praetor of the Twelvth Legion. Why?"

"Percy said that during our introductions. But we don't know why."

"My money's on Hera made him say that!" Leo said.

"And why would you say that?" Hera asked a little too innocently.

Leo shrugged. "You've made all seven of us do weird things, Tia."

"Continue." Hera said well glaring at Leo.

"Uh, okay." Jason said, "Praetor of the Twelfth Legion, Champion of Juno, hero of Olympus."

Piper stepped forward. "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, head of my cabin, charm speaker, hero of Olympus."

Leo stepped forward. "Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, head of my cabin, fire user, hero of Olympus."

The sumo boy stepped forward. "Frank Zhang, son of Mars, legacy of Poseidon, centurion of the Fifth Cohort, hero of Olympus."

The girl, now out of Nico's grasp, stepped forward to speak. "Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, rider of Arion, hero of Olympus."

Sally pushed Paul forward a little. "Paul Blofis, Percy's stepdad." Poseidon frowned slightly, but quickly wiped his face clean.

"Demigods," Zeus said, "State your business here."

"We don't know why we're here." Jason said. "We were on our stupid quest," The demigods glared at Hera. "A-and we l-lost Percy and Annabeth in Rome." Jason faltered a little bit. Paul joined the demigods in glaring at Hera.

Piper stepped forward to finish for him. "We were traveling to Greece, and we were all in the dining room, then we actually just IM'd Paul and our present Sally and told them what happened. We were engulfed in a bright light, and then we were here."

Zeus nodded. A sticky note appeared on the book cover of the book in Poseidon's hand. "Dearest Olympians," Poseidon read aloud, "We have sent back these six mortals to join you in the reading of Perseus Jackson's history. They do not know the full story and they have the right to know. We've also reasoned that since you are learning of the outcome of The Great Prophecy, you should also learn of the outcome of The Prophecy of Seven. We've increased the books you must read from five, to ten. Enjoy, The Fates."

The demigods groaned. Ten books? That was a lot for ADHD demigods.

By the hearth, Hestia snapped her fingers, and the newcomers were all in chairs. Leo was in a oversized beanbag chair. Jason was put in throne similar to his fathers. Hazel, Frank, and Piper were all in La-Z Boy recliners. Paul was in an office chair. Aphrodite sighed heavily.

"Seriously Hestia, learn." She snapped her fingers and couples were in love seats. Sally and Paul were together in a light blue one. Piper and Jason were in a brown one, and Frank and Hazel were in a red one. Nico frowned at his sister. He was an over protective brother. He didn't wan anyone touching her.

"Shall we begin?" Poseidon asked. when he got the attention of all the gods and mortals, he began.


	5. Lightning Thief ch 3

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants**

"Really Grover?" Thalia asked. Grover blushed.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Annabeth turned her body so she could scold Percy, but he stopped her with a kiss. Athena frowned, Aphrodite squirmed happily in her seat, and Percy's parents smiled. Nico and Thalia gaged. The rest of Seven looked at them sadly.

"I know," Percy whispered in her ear, "It was stupid, I could've gotten hurt, blah blah blah. I'm sorry, don't be mad." Annabeth nodded and they returned to their original position.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted** **up,**

People laughed and Grover's blush deepened.

**so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth** **and First," I told the driver.**

Th Stolls shared a devious smile that Percy caught. "If you go anywhere near my apartment without my okay, I swear on Styx I will cut you up and feed you to Mrs. O'Leary." The Stolls gulped.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

**Her own parents died in a plane crash ****when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Athena scowled. Everybody should get a diploma. She put it on her Todo list.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Paul scowled a little, but quickly wiped his face clean. Percy noticed this, but didn't say anything.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement." Thalia muttered. Annabeth smiled. It was true after all.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Some people shuddered. Others gaged.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"He asked you for money?" Sally asked. Percy nodded but didn't say anything.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Why does that description sound familiar to me?" Piper asked. People shrugged, but Sally and Percy had a hunch.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"Did he ever hurt you?" Sally asked cautiously. Percy turned away.

"Yeah." he muttered. Sally gasped a little and Annabeth wrapped her arms around Percy.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

"It covered what was important at least." Sally said. She received many questioning looks. "I married him so his stench would cover Percy's half-blood scent." She explained. People nodded.

"Poseidon," Athena said not acknowledging Paul's uneasiness with the subject. "How did you manage to meet a smart woman?" Poseidon simply shrugged sensing Paul's feelings.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"Of all his poker buddies," Sally said, "Eddie was my favorite. I hated him, but he was half way decent."

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

The girls gaged and shuddered. Connor and Travis, who did that to gross out there cabin mates, vowed never to do that again.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"And I thought your room was messy now." Paul said.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"I think sarcasm is the only way I didn't go insane from living with him." Percy said.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

Sally smiled at this.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"How hard was that?" Travis asked.

"Extremely." Sally responded.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"NO!" Hermes yelled in horror. "Rule 31,"

"Never lie to mom." Connor and Travis choursed.

"How many rules are there?" Percy asked.

"365." Travis said. "We're gonna give you lessons." Percy shrugged, Sally glared.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"Yes I was." Sally said.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Sweet, sweet, bribary." Piper muttered with a smile.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought.**

People chuckled.

**And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"I can't decide wheather that'd be better or worse than Apollo's haikus.." Thalia said. The demigods, who had heard the sun god recite, laughed and nodded.

"That is not nice kids. My poetry is awesome. I am awesome too." Apollo recited dramatically.

The other mortals joined in with the nodding and laughing. Apollo frowned and sat back in his seat.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"For you and I didn't" Sally answered.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"Really?" Rachel asked. Percy nodded.

"A truck scratched it once. Well I was at school. He some how found a way to blame me."

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"You're powers were that advanced at twelve?" Nico asked. Percy nodded.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, **

Annabeth cringed and Percy held her tighter. Piper and Hazel looked at her in sympathy. They knew what she would have to do in the future.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Paul shifted uncomfortably.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"Why so much blue?" Jason asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue , Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.**

"That's why." Hazel said.

"Why what?" Percy asked. Hazel said nothing and shared a knowing smile with Frank.

**This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"Beautiful sea green eyes." Annabeth whispered as she looked into her boyfriend's eyes. He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. Athena noticed and started fuming. She didn't want that sea spawn with her daughter. She gripped the arm of her throne so tight, it broke off.

The new five smiled at their friends. Hazel and Piper teared a little as they thought of the fate that awaited them.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"Actually, if it weren't for Hera," Paul began, "you'd likely be at Goode for two years in a row."

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But… he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"I visited you once In your crib." Poseidon said quickly before continuing.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"At least he regrets them." Artemis said.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"That's not a bad thing." Annabeth said, kissing his cheek.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

People looked at Hera. "What?" She asked defensively. "I've only ever done that with Hercules." Leo coughed.

"Are you sure about that Tia?" He said. Hera glared.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"And you preferred what happened instead?" Grover asked.

"No."Percy said quickly.

"You should've told me." Sally said.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"**

"A summer camp where you could die..." Rachel muttered.

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Jupiter and Neptune?" Frank asked. Percy nodded.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"Hurricane?" Jason asked. Percy nodded.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

Percy shot a knowing look at Grover.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …**

"I don't get it." Apollo complained.

Artemis shared a look with Hestia that said _boys._

"Think about the chapter title." She said.

Apollo smiled. "Oh. Ha ha. I get it now."

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"I thought the same things when I saw Coach Hedge." Piper said. Leo and Jason nodded in agreement.

"Who's next?" Poseidon asked. Jason raised his hand And was tossed the book.

"Wait!" Travis said. "Can we eat first."

"And sleep?" Connor added.

The gods looked around and they nodded in agreement. "An hour to eat, an hour to socialize, then bed." Zeus said. Everyone nodded in agreement, and Hestia snapped her fingers. A buffet and picnic tables magically appeared. Bronze burners sat on either end of the buffet.

"Help yourselves." she said with a smile.


	6. Dinner and Socializing

The gods shrunk down to human size, and they and the mortals quickly filled their plates. The demigods threw an offering into the burners, and they all took seats around tables.

The gods kept dinner like it was at Camp Half Blood, ordered by godly parent. The Greek demigods and Jason were unhappy about this. Frank and Hazel were confused by this new eating arrangement. The humans were aloud to sit with their family, and the maiden goddesses, minus Athena, sat at their own table.

* * *

At Zeus' table, Zeus sat with Jason and Thalia. Normally, Thalia would've sat with Artemis, but she wanted to talk to her brother. Thalia just stared at Jason, and she kicked his shin.

"Oh my gods! What was that for?" He yelled in pain.

"For making me think you were dead!" She cried. "She told the you were dead!"

"I'm sorry, but it's not my fault."

"I know," she as said quietly. "It's dad's and Hera's."

"How is it my fault?" Zeus asked defensively.

Thalia glared at him. "You gave him away to Hera. You gave her my brother!"

Zeus looked away, slightly ashamed. A sad silence settled over the trio. Jason eventually broke it by asking Thalia a question. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to have a conversation.

"Do you know how I got my scar?" he asked pointing to his lip. Thalia nodded and explained it. Their table wasn't silent for the rest of the night.

* * *

Athena and Annabeth sat together. Her mother was attacking her with questions about her relationship with Percy. Annabeth answered each question, but it seemed to make Athena hate the relationship even more.

"Why don't you like Percy? You don't even know what he does in the past! Well, your future." Annabeth snapped.

"I doubt he has done anything that could impress me."

Annabeth laughed. "Wanna bet?"

"Five drachmas."

"Survives the Underworld, the Sea of Monsters, the Lotus Casino, and the Labyrinth. Holds up the sky. Gains _Artemis' _respect. Fights Ares and wins. Fights Atlas and wins. Kills Kronos. Is that enough for you?" Athena gets quiet. She fish five golden coins from her pocket and slid them to her daughter. They silently ate for the rest of the hour.

* * *

At the Ares table, Ares and Clarrise were scolding Frank because he prefers the bow and arrow.

"It's not a real man's weapon!" Ares stated.

"Archery is for wimps." Clarrise said as she tore into her ribs.

When there was a break in the constant fighting, Frank asked, "Do we have to sit with our parents, or can we sit with another god if we're their legacy?"

"_If _you were a gods legacy you could, but" Frank stood and left before Clarrise could finish her sentance.

* * *

Poseidon's table was filled with many attempts at small talk, and even more awkward silences.

That's what happens when your sitting at a table with your biological dad, your mom, and your step dad. When your sitting with your husband, son, and ex-lover. When your sitting with your wife, step-son, and his real dad. When your sitting with your son, former lover, and her husband.

The silence was overwhelming until someone came over and sat down (loudly) beside Percy, across from Poseidon.

"Gods!" He exclaimed. "I can't stand it over there! All they talk about is how I should be using a spear or sword instead of a bow and arrow!"

They looked over at the sumo boy. "Frank, right?" Percy said.

Frank nodded confirming that his name was Frank. "What are you doing here?" Sally asked. "I thought you were Ares' kid."

"Actually, I'm Mars' kid, but I'm the legacy of Poseidon. So, technically, I'm aloud to sit here." Everyone nodded understanding the logic.

"So, you're from our future, right?" Percy asked. Frank nodded. "What happens?"

Frank shared a sad look with Paul at Percy.

"Pain." Frank says bluntly.

"Heartache." Paul adds from the other side of the table. He and Frank switch off, adding to the list. Each word more tragic than the last. However they don't reveal what actually happens.

Poseidon and Sally share a worried glance. It was obviously about Percy. Percy felt scared to a large degree.

* * *

At the Hermes table, the Stolls were sharing the pranks they'd pulled at camp. Hermes gave them new ones to use.

* * *

Nico and Hazel sat across from Hades.

"So I lift the curse in the future?" Hades asked. Nico nodded.

"I'm happy for you."

"What curse?" Hazel asked. She was half hoping it had to do with her curse. Rubies and Sapphires encrusted themselves into the bench at her curiosity.

"Calm down." Nico said as a particularly rough diamond grew beneath his thy. He and his dad quickly explained the curse that was put on the oracle.

"So, how are you alive again?" Hades asked Hazel. She and Nico explained.

They talked like a normal, happy family for the rest of the night. (Who knew that'd happen at the Hades' table?)

* * *

Demeter and Katie discussed cereal at their table.

* * *

Rachel and Apollo discussed prophecies at their table. Apollo used some pretty bad haiku's as well.

* * *

Grover sat uncomfortably with Dionysus at his table. He nervously ate tin cans.

* * *

Leo and his dad sat together. They both had similar tool belts They could magically hold anything. They decided to play a game where they would takes turns and pull out a random spare part, and add it to the machine until it did something.

* * *

Piper sat with Aphrodite. Her mother was gushing on and on about how pretty Piper was. She asked about the future couples.

"So, what's in store for Percebeth?" She asked overly perky.

"Percebeth?" Piper asked confused.

"Percy and Annabeth. They are a couple, right?" Piper nodded slowly. "What happens to them. Like, what's their ending?" Piper was just confused.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I mean, is it a tragedy, a happy ending. What happens in their future?"

"Well, from my time period, I guess it's tragic. We don't know if their dead or alive right now. All we know is they're going through Hell together."

Aphrodite sighed. "They're that bad? They'r so bad it's hell to be together?" Piper sighed. Her mother could be so clueless.

"No. They are literally going through Hell. Tartarus to be exact."

Aphrodite was shocked. "T-Tartarus?" Piper nodded.

"And before that, Hera kidnapped Percy for eight months." Aphrodite gasped. Even though they haven't even met in her time period yet, Percebeth was still one of her favorite couples. She shot a glare at Hera.

A silence settled, and Piper was okay with it. Her mother wasn't.

"So, what about the other couples in your prophecy? Who are they?"

Piper sighed, but she proceeded with "Frazel", "Lazel", and "Jiper" as Aphrodite dubbed them/

* * *

The next hour passed by quickly for the demigods. They all blame ADHD.

The seven sat in a circle. Annabeth was in Percy's lap. Jason had is arm around Piper. Hazel was leaning against Frank.

"Can you please tell us what happens in the future?" Annabeth asked.

The other seven looked around and had a silent agreement of how much to tell.

"Long story short," Leo said. "Percy and Jason are kidnapped by Hera. She gives them both amnesia, and sends them to one-another's camps. And that, my future friends, is the beginning of the Prophecy of Seven."

Percy and Annabeth were stunned. "Can you explain it in more detail?" Percy asked. "I kind of want to know what happens."

"Well, it will probably be in one of the new books. Didn't the note say there are ten now instead of five?" Piper asked.

"I still want to know." Percy grumbled.

Piper sighed. "First off, there are two camps. One Greek and one Roman. Jason, Hazel, and Frank are Roman. Leo, you, Annabeth, and I are Greek."

Jason comes in. "We're both kidnapped from our individual camps by Juno, I mean, Hera. She gives us amnesia. I wake up on a bus with Leo and Piper. We end up at Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth is freaking out about you." Annabeth sunk into Percy a little. "Leo, Piper and I go on a quest to save Hera from a cage."

"Then eight months later, you wake up and come to the Roman camp. You, Frank, and I go to Alaska to free Death. We come back." Hazel continued.

"Then my totally awesome ship flies in and we come down for a meal." Leo said.

"And you, Jason and Leo manage to get yourselves possessed by ghosts. Repair Boy here blows up the Roman camp." Frank said.

"And we fly away in my totally awesome ship." Leo says.

"We proceed to Rome where Annabeth embarks on her epic solo quest." Piper says.

"While the rest of us save Nico from being killed by the twin anti-Bacchus'." Hazel adds.

"We end up saving Annabeth from losing the thing she worked so hard to get during her quest." Jason adds.

"You and she get... compromised." Frank adds. Percy tightened his arms around Annabeth.

"The five of us and Nico get on our way to Greece, and then we were brought here."

"So, you don't save us?" Annabeth asked.

"In our defense," Hazel said. "Percy told Nico to go on. Besides, by the time Frank or Jason could have helped you, you were beyond saving."

Nico and Thalia came over. "What ya talkn' 'bout?" Nico asked. "I heard my name."

"We're telling about what's gonna happen in your future." Jason said.

"You shouldn't do that." Thalia half scolded. She then proceeded to give him a noogie.

"Thalia," Annabeth. "What's up? I've never seen you that friendly with a male before. Not even with Luke when we were on the run."

"I never did tell you the reason I ran away did I?" Thalia asked as she sat down. Annabeth shook her head.

"You always said family problems."

"Jason is my full brother. Dad fell for our mom twice. Hera was angry. Mom and dad let her take Jason. Jason was the only reason I hadn't run away sooner. I was angry. Ran away a week later."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"You were seven. I was depressed."

Annabeth pondered if she should ask if Luke knew or not, but she decided against it. Then Zeus' voice boomed over the throne room.

"Time for bed. Be back here at eight."

The demigods groaned in protest but reluctantly went to sleep in beds that Hestia magically brought in.

* * *

**Hope you liked it! Next three chapters WILL be book reading. I swear on Styx. **

**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! :)**


	7. Lightning Thief ch 4

All the demigods woke around seven in the morning. They had a quick breakfast and sat back down in their chairs and couches. Jason sat down with the book and Piper lied her legs across his lap. When everyone was ready, he began reading.

**My mother Teaches me bullfighting**

"Since when do you bull fight?" Paul asked.

"I don't." Sally said. "But I have a good idea what this is referring too."

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything,**

"I couldn't." She said.

**but she kept her foot on the gas.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom… know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"Stalker." Travis accused pointing a shaky finger at Grover. Everyone rolled their eyes. Even Connor who usually joins in with Travis.

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urn … what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"**

"Uh, you do know fauns take offence to that, right?" Hazel said.

"Yeah. He told me that." Percy said.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

"See?" Percy said.

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like … Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"They take offence to that too." Hazel added.

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

**"Of course."**

**"Then why-"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Why?" Piper asked. Everyone ignored her.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Random." Frank stated.

"It's our cover." Rachel said.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"Yes." Annabeth muttered in Percy's arm.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to … when someone's about to die."**

"Nice save." Nico said sarcastically.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner … and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

"You're blunt." Leo noted. Percy shrugged.

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay… ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

Everyone looked at Zeus. "Why are you both after my kid?" Poseidon asked his brothers. "I don't care if your kids are in my domain. Yet you both try to kill my son every chance you get."

Zeus and Hades shrunk in their thrones a little.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Everyone laughed. Even the gods. Grover blushed deeply.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to …" Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"You fought the Minotaur?" Jason asked. Percy nodded, but he was uncomfortable when he was the center of attention.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"You refer to me as 'that big tree'?" Thalia asked offended.

Sally shrugged. "I didn't know it had a name and I didn't know who you were. I just knew it was camp boundaries.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"She can't." Grover mumbled. No one heard him.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

Awkwardness settled between Percy's dad and step-dad.

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

Everyone snickered some more. Grover's red deepened.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head … was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"ARE horns." Thalia finished.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But…"**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you-"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

"Wimp." Ares muttered.

Annabethm Percy, and Grover shared a look as they thought about Percy's fight with Ares.

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"You should cut that." Hades noted.

"I'll do it personally if I can get five years off my sentence."Dionysus said. Zeus pondered this.

"Any better offers?" he asked.

"I'll do it." Percy said. "If I can leave for a event I'm sure will come up in the book."

"Deal." Zeus said.

"Johnson!" the wine god growled.

"Jackson." Percy corrected. The god growled again.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-**

Everybody laughed.

**which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min-"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

**The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

More minor chuckles.

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

"Only Kelp Head would think a thing like that at a time like that." Thalia said. Percy pouted some and everyone laughed. Annabeth kissed his cheek to make him feel better.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Everyone was silent wanting to see how this would play out.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply … gone.**

"Not dead?" Hazel asked. Percy shook his head.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"Ironic." somebody muttered.

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"You need to work on your insults." Travis said

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea-a stupid idea,**

"Look out!" Connor yelled. "Percy's got an idea. And he's admitting its stupid.

**but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

**How did I do that?**

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

Everyone gagged. Even Ares.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

Everyone was in the heat of the moment. Nobody even noticed this.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!**

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"Aw!" Aphrodite cooed. "Love at first sight!"

Annabeth blushed, more at the description, than Aphrodite. Percy kissed her head.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Who's next?" Jason asked. Leo stole the book from him.

"Mine."

******I Play Pinochle With a Horse**

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******A/N please read and review. :) Ill update ASAP.**


	8. Lightning Thief ch 5

**Thanking my fifties this chapter!**

**Shout out to puzzlingnerd57- My 50th reviewer! msl8720- My 50th favorite! Pandagrl- My 50th favorite!**

**Please read and review! **

* * *

**I play Pinochle with a horse.**

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

Leo looked up from the book. "Seriously dude?" Percy shrugged. He didn't feel like explaining that he can't control his dreams.

**I must have woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again.**

**I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blonde hair hovered over me, smirking as scarped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"You thought he knew something?" Thalia asked. Annabeth blushed and shrugged. Percy smiled at her embarrassment. He held her tighter.

**I managed to croak, "What?"** **She looked around; as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!""I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

"I prefer you start shutting him up that way from now on." Thalia said. Annabeth looked at her, blushing slightly. "I can't stand watching you two kiss. And you seem to do it more when he's going off on idiotic rants."

Percy was annoyed by this. He turned Annabeth and kissed her on the lips. Nico and Thalia gagged. Annabeth and Percy laughed.

Aphrodite and Piper started cooing. The sight was just so sweet. "Pipes," Jason said, realizing she was doing it involuntarily.

"Hm?" She muttered while watching the cute couple.

"Your Aphrodite is showing." Piper frowned. Then blushed and stopped cooing.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"How is Argus?" Hera asked. Nobody answered her. The Roman's, Piper, Leo, and Paul weren't happy with her. Everyone else wanted to get on with the story.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck.**

**All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest.**

"That's kind of ironic." Annabeth muttered. She was thinking about the scorpion attack after their quest.

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt. On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

"Wimp." Ares said. Percy rolled his eyes. Hazel was wondering how Percy hadn't died at the hands of the gods yet.

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

"My money's on Grover." Travis said.

"Chiron." Connor said.

"Annabeth." Aphrodite cooed.

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"Pay up." Travis said.

"Nuh uh. We didn't make it an official bet." Connor said. Travis grumbled, but agreed.

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Except for the camp shirt." Rachel said.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. **

"No." Grover and Annabeth chorused.

**Maybe my mom was okay. **

"No."

**We were still on vacation,**

"No."

**and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason.**

"No."

**And...**

"No."

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this." Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"That wasn't a good idea, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said.

"I know." Percy said hugging her tighter.

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-" "That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

**He looked down.**

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

"And I'm not suppose to look beautiful?" Thalia asked offended.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"Oh."

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world." He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**Oh, Styx!" he mumbled. thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed,**

"Thanks a lot." Grover said sarcastically.

"No problem." Percy said jokingly.

**or even Minotaur's. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army.**

**I'd do something. Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever-****looked as if he expected to be hit.**

"I half expected it." Grover admitted. Percy looked at him weirdly.

"Why would I hit you?"

"You were angry."

"Granted, I was angry, but I've also been on the receiving end if angry abuse. It's not fun." Sally looked at him worriedly and concerned. She needed to have a word with him before bed.

**I said, "It wasn't your fault." "Yes, it was. I was supposed to ****_protect _****you." "Did my mother ask you to protect me?" "No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was." "But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. I recoiled at the taste, **

Apollo started gaping. How could he be disgusted with nectar?

**because I was expecting apple juice.**

Apollo closed his mouth.

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

**And not just any cookies- my mom's ****homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

Sally smiled.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted. "Was it good?" Grover asked. I nodded. "What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.** **My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. **

"Wimp." Ares said.

**Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture" an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena" except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun.**

**In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. **

"Eager to see Percy again, aren't we?" Thalia teased. Annabeth shot a glare, but her face was tinted red.

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

Dionysus was gaping, horrfied by the description. He really looked like that?

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, **

"Like I would ever play that schmuck." the god muttered.

**except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. **

"You know he does what he wants anyway, right?" Annabeth asked the satyr.

"Yeah. I know."

**The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, ****but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers ****_B_****.**

"I hate when teachers do that!" Travis exclaimed.

"What's worse is when they make all the answers the same, except for one." Connor added.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, ****_if _****there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.** **She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? **

"More like floor bored." Percy muttered.

**We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now." Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron." She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, ****except her eyes ruined the image.**

Annabeth turned in his lap. "And what's wrong with my eyes?"

Percy smiled, and pulled her back down. "Absolutly nothing."

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

**She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, ****_You killed a minotaur! _****or ****_Wow, you're so awesome! _****or something like that.**

"Wow Percy, ego much?" Thalia asked. Percy just shot her a look.

"Who knew Percy actually thought of himself so highly?" Nico asked.

"I'll have you know, this was before I got my grip on reality."

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

Thalia, Nico, and the Stolls started laughing.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron." "Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. **

"I don't think he would've cared if you did." Annabeth said.

**"Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, **

"ED!" The Stolls cut in. Percy shot them a glare, and they stopped smiling.

**so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.** **"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. ****We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

Dionysus looked at him, a purple fire in his eyes. "I am a god you insolent half-blood!" he bellowed.

Percy looked up and down at the twelve foot god. "I still don't see why." Percy stated.

Jason looked at him weirdly. "How have the gods not incinerated you yet?"

Percy shrugged. "It's a gift."

"We should keep a tally." Travis suggested. Connor grinned and pulled out a note pad with a tick mark on it.

"Way ahead of you bro."

**"You ****_do _****know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, ****_sir_****," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man,**

"What's Pac -Man?" Hazel asked.

"It's an old video game." Frank explained.

**one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all ****_civilized _****young men to know the rules."**

"Since when are gladiators civilized?" Katie questioned. Other demigods shrugged.

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? **

"Camp Half-Blood!" Travis yelled. Connor cheered.

**What am I doing here? Mr. Brunner-Chiron why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?" Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question." The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, ****_I _****was his star student. He expected ****_me _****to have the right answer.**

"Chiron really didn't help you ego problem." Clarrise said. Nico and Thalia snickered. Percy ignored them.

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

"Nice subject change." Hermes noted.

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"You never saw the orientation film?" Annabeth asked. Percy shook his head.

"You don't actually _need_ to see it." Piper said.

"You just need to dive into the magical stuff quickly." Leo added.

"You haven't seen it either?" Thalia asked.

Piper, Leo, and Jason shook their heads. "We had to deal with wind spirits, a satyr, and a few falls down the Grand Canyon." Jason said.

"Then we had to deal with a flying chariot and a few pegasi." Leo added.

"Then we crash landed into the canoe lake." Piper said.

"My orientation consisted of Chiron freaking out and telling me I was suppose to be dead." Jason said.

"I was told my cabin was cursed." Leo said. "And they gave me the bed of a dead man."

"Rachel was posessed by Hera and she shook me until I blacked out." Piper said.

There was a silence. Rachel stared at Piper. "I don't hold it against you." Piper informed. Rachel opened her mouth to say something, but she just closed it. Leo started reading again.

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, ****_Not! _****But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

Everyone laughed. Grover blushed.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital ****_G_****, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"I'm mentioned!" Apollo cheered. Artemis debated with herself if she should noch an arrow. She decided against it. Boys will be boys, unfortunately.

**And there it was again, distant thunder on a cloud less day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"Do we look like myths to you?" Zeus challenged. Percy shrugged.

"I was in denial."

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come ****_so-o-o _****far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that ****_immortal _****means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, ****but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some day people would call ****_you _****a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"That was harsh." Annabeth said.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

"Denial." The Stolls chorsed.

Percy stared at them. "I just said I was in denial like a minute ago."

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

"It's shocking how that _still _hasn't happened." Hazel said. Most of the other demigods nodded or murmured something in agreement.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

Zeus glared at Dionysus. "You served yourself wine?" he asked in a _You better have a good reason for this or else_ tone.

Dionysus didn't pick up on the tone, but he still responded correctly. "I'm sure it was an honest mistake." he said as he flipped the page of his magazine.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

"An honest mistake. Right." Zeus said drawing out the i.

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

"I could take away the rest of your sentance." Zeus offered. Dionysus looked up hopeful. "Then force you to the Fields of Punishment and give Hestia her throne back." Zeus suggested nonchalantly. Dionysus sunk in his throne.

"Camp Half-Blood. Absolutely fair." he squeaked. The Greek demigods (plus Jason and Rachel) tried hard not to laugh at the sight of their godly director.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

The kids mentioned before busted up laughing. Leo continued when the laughter died down.

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

**_"Di immortales, _****Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

"GASP!" Thalia explained.

"Percy figured something out!" Nico finished. Percy shot them a look that said he wasn't amused. The Stolls pouted because Thalia and Nico beat them to the punch.

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

The Stolls started snickering uncontrollably.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"Yeah. That's what gonna put him in a strait-jacket." Hazel muttered. Frank patted her shoulder in hopes to make her feel better.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

"Gasp! He did the right thing again!" Connor said. He was ignored by everyone. Even Travis, who was snuggling with Katie.

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

Mr. D cheered for himself.

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

Dionysus sat back down and huffed.

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher.**

"Unfortunately." Dionysus muttered.

**He got up, and Grover rose, too. "I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, ****_again, _****about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment." Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir." Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded,**

"I get it!" Connor announced.

Everyone looked at him. "Get what?" Clarisse ventured.

"He's been grounded. He stuck on the ground, Camp Half-Blood. Not in the air, or Olympus." Connor explained cheekily.

There was a long pause. Leo's ADHD was too much, so he started reading again.

**I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in ****_America_****?"**

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

"Here we go." Katie muttered. The demigods groaned. Paul leaned forward in anticipation. Sure, he knew about demigods, but he didn't get a full lecture from his ADHD stepson.

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

"Do we appear dead?" Hera asked.

Percy looked around the council. "Well, no. Hades does though."

Hades looked like he wanted to incinerate him. Poseidon and Zeus were, unsuccessfully, trying to contain their laughter.

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, ****either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that ****_I _****seemed to be included in Chiron's ****_we, _****as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

"Percy," Piper scolded. "Don't be dramatic, it doesn't suit you."

"Uh... Okay." It came out mor like a question.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear,**

The Stolls and Leo snickered.

"Two chapters in a row with an underwear reference." Jason said. "How do you manage that?" Percy was silent.

**but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

"That's kind of creepy." Frank and Hazel muttered.

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks **

The three elvish demigods started snickering.

"Fetlocks doesn't mean butt." Annabeth informed.

The snickering ceased.

**had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"End of the chapter!" Leo announced.

Travis and Connor snook over behind Leo and read the next chapter title. They looked at one another and grinned. "We vote Clarrise reads the next chapter!" They chorused.

Percy smiled as he remembered what happened next. "I agree with that idea." He announced.

Annabeth realized what they were up to. "Shes going to pulverize you." She whispered to Percy. Percy shrugged.

"Clarrise sighed and took the book."

**I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom**

* * *

**Please review! thanks :)**

**~Life's a Happy Song**


	9. UP FOR ADOPTION

I'm sorry, but I can't continue with this story. I've either run dry of ideas, or lost interest in it. So this is now up for adoption. If I don't get a request for it to be taken (IN A PM) within the week, I'm going to delete the story from my account.

Sorry to my followers!


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